Bridge Building tricks

Hank · 01-05-2007, 01:17 AM,

I'm not sure sending a BTL file will help with this issue. Part of the challenge is how many bridges a defending force blows. In Bulge there's several rivers with bridges that are subject to destruction by the US army. If the US blows every bridge on the map then there could be many places Axis forces need river crossings to advance their heavy armor.

I'm OK with the way things are. Everyone has to contend with the same issues of bridge building ... how long it takes ... and how many bridging units are in each scenario.

My comments here were really to clarify what happens when an engineer is in "bridge ops" mode; building or repairing. ... after reading others comments it appears most bridges constructed by the Army engineers need on location crews to maintain the bridge (which I knew) but I'm still not sure how many guys are left with a bridge after its constructed; 25, 50, or a complete company. Since bridging engineers are only able to be broken into 3 company sized units (sometimes) you could run out of bridging units if your opponent blows everything they can find. (of course, I was under a delusion bridges may be getting repaired if a damaged one existed which really wouldn't require many people to stick around to maintain it after its fixed ... at least not a company of men or more ... )

Glenn Saunders · 01-05-2007, 11:54 AM,

Hank · 01-06-2007, 12:37 AM,

I don't blame you. There's too many other more pressing issues to address.

Bridge building is simply a factor in planning that we all have to do. If you want to keep your guys moving and supplied, figure out a way to do it with the forces you have available.

That's what logistics and planning is all about isn't it(?): too many "needs" and not enough resources ... who was that guy; Abraham Maslow ... or something like that ...

Dog Soldier · 01-07-2007, 04:49 PM,

Hank,

FWIW, I can't remember any pictures of troops crossing a river, in books I have read, where a bridge was repaired during the battle. Many pictures show the damaged bridge in the background and the engineered bridge in the foreground. During the scope of a campaign game I do not think any heavy bridges were ever repaired. That would have come much later and outside the scope of the game.

I think this is why commanders of all armies placed such a high value on capturing a bridge intact.

Anyone have access to a source on one of the PzC games that shows an example of a repaired bridge as Hank suggests?

Dog Soldier

Hank · (This post was last modified: 01-08-2007, 01:52 AM by Hank.)

Dog Soldier · 01-08-2007, 04:38 PM,

Hank,

Nice references. I was mostly curious. Many members have in-depth knowledge of small corners of the war. I have never run out engineers in any scenario of PzC I have played for crossing rivers. Some crossings were harder than others.
But for the most part, I still believe river crossings are too easy when the river is only a hex border and not a full hex in width.
The hardest river in the series to cross is the Waal River in Mg44 for the Allies against a good German player.

Dog Soldier

Hank · 01-09-2007, 01:19 AM,

Thanks D.S.,

I've been playing a lot of TOAWIII lately. I am not sure the way they model rivers within a hex instead of on a hex side is good or bad ... the jury is still out for me. There's been a lot of debate in the toaw community about this, but I'm fairly sure this won't change since it will be too big of a change for the game and the scenario's already in use.

I'm learning more about how to use the engineers better both with PzC's and TOAW. Thinking back, I think most of my problems with building river crossings is in Smolensk. In some places along the Dnepr I couldn't get the engineers to finish their bridge ops for days and days (=many many turns). Usually, I'd give up and more them elsewhere with some success ... and some failings.

Live and learn.

Have a good one.
hank